Helen Jane Kiely

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Services for Helen Jane Kiely, 74, of Gallup, will be at 10:00 am Thursday, April 13, 2023, at Daniels Family Funerals & Cremations on Wyoming Boulevard in Albuquerque.  Burial will take place immediately following at Sandia Memory Gardens. The family will receive friends and relatives beginning at 12:30 pm at the Tramway Plaza Event Centre.

Helen passed away on March 31, 2023, in Albuquerque.  She was born in Houck, Arizona, on June 2, 1948, of the Charcoal-Streaked division of the Red Running into the Water clan, born for the One Who Walks Around clan.

After graduating from high school in West Jordan, Utah, Helen became the first person in the history of her extended family to receive a college degree, graduating from Brigham Young University in 1975.  She was a well-loved and respected school teacher at Pine Hill for the Ramah Navajo School Board, at Puerco Elementary in Sanders, Arizona, and in Gallup for the Gallup-McKinley County School District, specializing in Navajo language and culture, until her retirement in 2013.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Helen was an active member of the Bahá’í Faith, which included her role as a co-founder and co-administrator of the Native American Bahá'í Institute in her home community of Houck, Arizona, as well as service on numerous local, regional and national councils and committees.  She became well-known throughout many native communities as a loving and compassionate friend, teacher and mentor to many souls, always promoting the Bahá'í vision of unity, justice, racial harmony and peace. 

Survivors include her lifelong husband Jeffrey G. Kiely, whom she married in 1977; son Shandiin “Sean” Kiely; daughter Philana M. Kiely; sisters Elsie James and Minnie James; brother Gilbert Yazzie; five grandchildren; and numerous nephews, nieces, grandnephews and grandnieces.

Helen was preceded in death by her parents Hosteen and Ruth Apache Yazzie; sisters Marie Yazzie, Judy Yazzie and Rose Matt; and brothers Frank Yazzie, Guy Yazzie and Patrick Yazzie.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations in Helen's honor to the Humane Society of McKinley County.